South African Risk and
Vulnerability Atlas releases
new portal
Dr Claire Davis-Reddy
Current Address: SAEON uLwazi Node
Reprinted From: https://bit.ly/3lTsYkk
NEWS
The world is facing a number
of complex global challenges.
These include changes in the
climate system as well as changes in
biophysical and human systems such
as urbanisation, deforestation, biodiversity
loss and, more recently, the rise
of pandemics.
Creating an enabling environment for
communities, governments and sectors
to respond to global change risks
is critical to ensure future resilience.
One essential component of responding
to global change is open access to
data in a format that is suitable for use
(i.e. decision-ready).
South African Risk and Vulnerability
Atlas *
The South African Risk and Vulnerability
Atlas (SARVA) is in its third phase
of development and a new portal was
released in April 2020 – sarva.saeon.
ac.za.
The aim of SARVA is to profile the vulnerability
of local municipalities and
proactively provide information to
strengthen the ability of the people
of South Africa to cope with a range
of natural and anthropogenic hazards,
including climate change, biodiversity
loss and epidemics.
SARVA will achieve this by providing
open access to decision-ready
data and translating the data and
risk maps into a digestible narrative
for decision-makers using a range of
decision-support tools which include
curated spatial data collections, indicator
dashboards, infographics and a
searchable atlas.
Researched blog reports on current
topics
SARVA features several researched
interactive reports on current topics
including Covid-19 Preparedness Indicators.
The purpose of these is to
showcase datasets that can be used
Figure 1: Views of the Covid-19 Preparedness Indicators have reached
more than 130 000, demonstrating the potential power of SAEON’s
open access data to assist in planning initiatives both for Covid-19 and
beyond (Picture: Unsplash)
Grassroots Vol 20 No 3 September 2020
36